GERMANS IN TONGA

Hokitika Guardian, 27 January 1920, Page 3

GERMANS IN TONGA

TRADERS COME BACK. AUCKLAND MERCHANT ORDERED TO ‘ PACK UP.” The reinstatement of German traders in Tonga is evidently an accomplished fact, judging from a letter received by an Auckland exporting merchant. The communication was of a circular type, issued by a (British-born subject who had accepted the invitation of the Government of Tonga is carry on one of the temporarily sequestrated German businesses, and who, according to the receiver of the notice, had apparently been ordered to “pack up” and leave. The information contained in the letter was that as -a result of the removal of German trading restrictions his business, which he had leased from a German, automatically ceased, and accordingly he instructed the cancelling of all orders for goods not shipped. It is anticipated in Auckand that similar steps will be taken by other men who are placed in the same position. With regard to the sugggestion fb»* the German traders may be ‘‘starved out” of business in Tonga if New Zealand firms refuse in a body to deal with them, the manager of one of the largest exporting firms in Auckland expressed the gravest doubts that every merchant iiV the city would fall in with the idea. There were some firms who would never agree to suqh a course, even if all the German merchants were deported from the Dominion. He feared that the whole trade with the Islands would get into the hands of certain ex-internees in the Auckland neighbourhood. The problem was a thorny one in that, on ■%he one hand there were those Germans ready and willing to export to Tongo, and on the other, Neiv Zealanders who Were equally anxious to do business in the same direction.